La bohème
Our quick guide to Richard Jones' festive production of one of Puccini's most heart-rending operas.
When a penniless writer, Rodolfo, meets a young seamstress, Mimì, he falls in love at first sight. But when he realises Mimì is gravely ill with consumption, will Rodolfo stay by her side or make the difficult choice to abandon her?
With its Christmas setting, tender exploration of first love and both humorous and heartbreaking celebration of friendship, La bohème captivates audiences time and time again, making it the perfect choice for your first visit to the opera.
Quick Facts
Who wrote La bohème?
The music for La bohème was written by Giacomo Puccini between 1894 and 1896. The libretto (dialogue and lyrics) was written by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica.
The Royal Opera's current production is directed by Richard Jones.
What Does La bohème mean?
'La bohème' is translated as 'The Bohemians' in English, and refers to a group of people who live an unconventional and artistic lifestyle.
What is La bohème about?
La bohème is a story of love and friendship, set at Christmastime in Paris. Can the warmth of friendship – and of young love – sustain the group of bohemians through the hardships of a cold winter?
How many acts is La bohème?
There are four acts in La bohème. The performance lasts approximately 2 hours 35 minutes, including one interval. The first two acts last for one hour. Acts 3 and 4 take place after the interval and last approximately 65 minutes.
History
Collaboration or competition?
Puccini began to plan an opera based on the French writer Henri Murger’s popular novel Scènes de la vie de bohème in 1893. Henry Murger’s Scènes de la vie de bohème is a series of short stories based on the author’s poverty-stricken existence among young Parisian artists. Murger and his friend Théodore Barrière also wrote a successful rather melodramatic play, La Vie de bohème (1849) using some of the same characters.
Exactly when Puccini decided on Henri Murger’s Scènes de la vie de bohème as the source for his fourth opera is uncertain; but he’d certainly begun work when he met his fellow-composer Ruggero Leoncavallo in Milan in March 1893. Leoncavallo was horrified to hear that Puccini was writing La bohème: he too was composing a La bohème, using a libretto that he claimed he’d previously offered to Puccini (Leoncavallo was a librettist as well as a composer). The two composers rushed to alert the media about their forthcoming operas. After much debate they decided that both Bohèmes would go ahead – the public could decide which was the better opera.
By the time Puccini and Leoncavallo’s quarrel reached the press, plans for Puccini’s opera were well underway. His publisher Giulio Ricordi had found him a first-class writing team, both of whom had briefly worked on Manon Lescaut. Luigi Illica was Italy’s most in-demand librettist and Giuseppe Giacosa a renowned playwright and poet. However, working with Puccini was famously never easy, and the genesis of La bohème was fraught. In the early stages of the project, Ricordi watched with alarm as Puccini toyed with alternative subjects (primarily Giovanni Verga’s story La lupa) and spent long periods travelling to supervise productions of Manon Lescaut. Nor did the difficulties didn’t stop once Puccini got down to work. He was notoriously fussy about the structure and nuances of his librettos, and Giacosa and Illica each threatened on occasion to resign. Only in summer 1894, with a complete libretto drafted, did Puccini calm down and concentrate wholeheartedly on composition.
The production, 24 performances in all, was a sell-out success, and the opera began to tour internationally very soon afterwards. It has never been absent from the repertory since.
Biographical work
In the mid-1840s Henry Murger (1822–61) was living in poverty in the Latin Quarter of Paris. No one wanted his verses or dramas, and his only earnings came from hack journalism. His friend Jules Fleury told him that there was a market for contemporary stories about the lives and loves of struggling young artists. Murger therefore decided to write about his own experiences and between 1847 and 1849 published some twenty-three tales of bohemian life.
The term ‘bohemian’ has been used since the mid-19th century to describe artists who live unconventional lives on the fringes of society, usually in poverty, and with an emphasis on free love. There has been much debate about whether bohemianism’s focus is more on an unorthodox lifestyle than on serious creative endeavour. In his opera, Puccini leaves us to decide whether the young men in La bohème are merely bourgeois drop-outs playing at being artists, or whether their artistic intentions – and their romantic relationships – are serious.
The poet Rodolphe, based on Murger himself, is ‘a young man whose face could hardly be seen for a huge… many-coloured beard’ with a ‘premature baldness that had stripped his temples as bare as a knee’. The burly painter Marcel has submitted his Crossing of the Red Sea to the Louvre so often that ‘if it had been put on wheels it could have gone by itself’; it ends up as a grocer’s shop sign. The musician and painter Schaunard has a voice ‘like a hunting horn’, a nose ‘aquiline in profile and snub in full face’ and is endlessly revising a symphony named On the Influence of Blue in the Arts. The bibliophile philosopher Colline has a mouth that ‘looked as if it had been drawn by an elementary art student whose elbow had been jogged’, and is perpetually in quest of a publisher but never getting published. For all their dreams, none of the men work particularly hard, and they are singularly useless with money. Whenever one of them earns anything, all four down tools to enjoy Pantagruelian banquets until they are poor again. Marcel and Musette are genuinely devoted to each other, but Musette’s love of luxury leads her regularly to leave Marcel for wealthier men. Rodolphe has several lovers. His relationship with Mimi (based on Murger’s own mistress Lucile Louvet) is largely unhappy. Mimi, whose face ‘could assume an appearance of savage brutality’, feels only ‘the lukewarm attraction of habit’ for Rodolphe. She drives him to distraction with her temper and coquetry, and eventually leaves him for a viscount.
La bohème Synopsis
Characters
- Mimì – a seamstress (sung by a soprano)
- Rodolfo – a poet (sung by a tenor)
- Marcello – a painter (sung by a baritone)
- Musetta – a singer and Marcello's on/off lover (sung by a mezzo-soprano)
- Schaunard – a musician (sung by a baritone)
- Colline – a philosopher (sung by a bass)
Other characters include Benoît (the bohemian's landlord) and Alcindoro (Musetta's admirer).
Rodolfo and Marcello complain of the bitter cold. They need to light their stove: Marcello suggests using a chair, but Rodolfo offers the manuscript of the play he is writing and they banter ironically as they enjoy the fleeting warmth. Colline returns and the remaining acts of the play are burnt. Some children arrive carrying wood, food and wine, followed by Schaunard. He explains that an Englishman engaged him to play his violin incessantly, to hasten the death of a neighbour’s noisy parrot; after three days he had the bird poisoned. The friends decide to go and eat in the Latin Quarter but are interrupted by Benoît, their landlord, who has come for the rent. They ply him with wine until he boasts of his amorous conquests: he prefers plump women to skinny ones like his wife. The bohemians pretend outrage at Benoît’s infidelity and push him out. They prepare to leave for the Café Momus, but Rodolfo says he will stay behind to finish writing an article. There is a knock at the door. It is a girl who timidly asks for a light for her candle. She seems to feel faint from climbing the stairs. As she is leaving, her candle flickers out again and she realizes she has lost her key. Rodolfo’s candle goes out too as he helps her. He takes her icy hand (Che gelida manina) and tells her of his life as a poet. She says her name is Mimì and describes her simple life as a flower embroiderer (Mi chiamano Mimì). The voices of Rodolfo’s friends are heard, telling him to hurry. He answers and turns to find Mimì bathed in moonlight (O soave fanciulla). They declare their love for each other. Mimì asks if she may join the four friends in the Café Momus. Rodolfo at first wants to stay, but eventually they wander out slowly, singing of love.
It is a bustling Christmas scene; hawkers and traders cry their wares; Rodolfo and Mimì wander through the crowd. They sit down and order dinner, Rodolfo introducing Mimì to his friends. Parpignol, a toyseller, passes, followed by a crowd of children. When Mimì shows her new friends the bonnet Rodolfo has bought her, it saddens Marcello: he thinks of his faithless Musetta. As they propose a toast Musetta appears, accompanied by Alcindoro, an admirer whom she is tormenting. Musetta, increasingly agitated at being ignored by Marcello, determines to win him back. She launches into a song (Quando me’n vo’) in which he eventually joins. She complains of a painful foot and dispatches Alcindoro to buy new shoes. The bill for supper appears and no one has any money. Musetta saves the situation by placing the bill on Alcindoro’s plate. The friends leave as a band marches through the square; Alcindoro returns, finds the bill, and sinks dumbfounded into a chair.
Sweepers shout to be let through the gate. From inside the tavern comes the voice of Musetta. Mimì enters, ill and racked with coughing. She asks for Marcello. He tells her that he and Musetta have been living at the inn and that Rodolfo is now with them. Mimì explains that Rodolfo’s jealousy is destroying their relationship and that last night he left her. Marcello advises Mimì to go, but instead she hides nearby. Rodolfo comes out of the tavern and says he must break with Mimì: her flirting has driven him mad. Eventually, however, he reveals the real reason: she is so ill that his miserable poverty offers her nothing but the prospect of death. Mimì breaks down, weeping and coughing. As Rodolfo hurries to her, Musetta’s laughter is heard and Marcello goes to see what she is up to. Mimì says farewell to Rodolfo: all she asks is that he send her possessions, but if he wishes he may keep the pink bonnet. Marcello and Musetta, quarrelling, separate acrimoniously. Rodolfo and Mimì move slowly away, resolving to postpone their separation until the spring.
Marcello and Rodolfo, trying to work, are discussing their loves. Rodolfo has seen Musetta in a fine carriage; Marcello has seen Mimì dressed like a queen. Rodolfo takes out Mimì’s bonnet and Marcello pulls some of Musetta’s ribbons from his pocket; they both indulge in a nostalgic recollection of times past (O Mimì, tu più non torni). Schaunard and Colline arrive with bread and a herring and the four eat and clown around. Suddenly Musetta enters. She has brought Mimì, who is desperately ill. Rodolfo carries Mimì in and she is helped to bed. Musetta explains that she met Mimì in the street and that Mimì, sensing she was dying, begged to be taken to Rodolfo. Mimì rallies and greets the friends. Musetta instructs Marcello to sell her earrings to pay for medicine and a doctor. Colline leaves to pawn his beloved old coat (Vecchia zimarra). Mimì expresses her boundless love for Rodolfo. They find the bonnet and, reconciled, reminisce about their first meeting. Mimì is overwhelmed by a coughing fit. The others return with a muff and medicine. But it is too late: Mimì dies unnoticed while they are preparing her medicine.
Pictures and Videos
Gallery
Yes, they call me Mimì
The role of Mimì is one of the most famous in opera, and this production of La bohème has seen some of the world's greatest singers in the role - including Angela Gheorghiu, Sonya Yoncheva, Simona Mihai and Anna Princeva. In the 2024/25 Season, Olga Kulchynska makes her debut in the role.
Mimì is a poor seamstress suffering from tuberculosis (to which she ultimately succumbs), an experience inspired by librettist Giuseppe Giacosa's own experience. We are introduced to her gentle and hopeful demeanour in Act I through the aria 'Si mi chiamano Mimì' (Yes, they call me Mimì).
Later in Act I, Mimì and Rodolfo begin to admit that they are in love, overpowering any sense of her illness. Their duet – 'O soave fanciulla' (Oh gentle maiden) – ends with them walking away into the night, hand in hand, with calls of Amor!
But her illness catches up with her and in Act III, Rodolfo realises that he cannot care for her with the little he has. She too emplores him to end their relationship, but they decide to stay together until Spring.
Despite Mimì surviving the Spring the relationship does not. That is until Mimì falls ill once more and her friends rally round. The bohemians gather supplies and medicine, leaving the lovers alone one last time.
The longest love affair
Composer Giacomo Puccini wrote about his opera ‘I’ve put my entire soul into La bohème. I fell in love with it immensely. There are no words to describe how strongly I’ve fallen in love with the characters that were created’. It's easy to fall in love with them, and it's hard to resist the music in this quintessential Puccini opera.
La bohème is one of the world’s most popular operas – in 2017 it was performed, on average, more than once a day in theatres around the world. The story is timeless and inspired both the musical Rent and the film Moulin Rouge, and was the background to Cher and Nicolas Cage’s romance in Moonstruck.
Watch more
Watch a performance
La bohème runs from 13 December 2024 – 17 January 2025. There are many other ways to watch:
- Main Stage
La bohème
- Opera and Music
On Christmas Eve, a spark of love is kindled in Puccini’s passionate opera.
Watch online
You can watch the production as well as behind-the-scenes insights, interviews and introductions on Royal Ballet and Opera Stream.
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